Media Announcements

Conservation Value of the North American Boreal Forest from an Ethnobotanical Perspective

The Boreal region in North America covers a vast area (almost six million km2) composed of a patchwork of unique habitats. The traditional territory of many indigenous people is within the Boreal region; there are hundreds of Aboriginal communities in the Canadian Boreal. Indigenous connections to the Boreal landscape go far beyond utilitarian purposes. Not only have indigenous people obtained all the resources necessary for survival from this environment, they have also developed a sacred cultural connection to the Boreal.

Specifically, the Boreal has significant ethnobotanical (relationship between people and plants) importance to indigenous people from this region. This ethnobotanical importance along with the collective traditional knowledge that is unique to and intrinsically tied to this region and the rich variety of plants from which this knowledge stems, lend tremendous weight to the significant conservation value of the Boreal region.